Cigar holder



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R. W. ADAMS CIGAR HOLDER Oct. 18, 1960 Filed Sept. 18, 1958 INVENTOR RICHARD W. ADAMS ATTORNEYS Uite tes CIGAR HOLDER Richard W. Adams, 6728 W. Finger Place, Milwaukee 14, Wis.

Filed Sept. 18, 1958, Ser. No. 761,785

1 Claim. (Cl. 131-187) This invention appertains to cigar holders and, more particularly, to a flexible resilient holder for cigars.

In the past, there have been numerous types of cigar and cigarette holders developed, some with inserts, liners, sleeves, thimbles and other types attached to the cigar at the factory, some made of rubber, etc. To my knowledge all of the above mentioned types of cigar holders have an open end to receive the cigar and which end is circular in cross section while most cigars are actually rectangular in cross section. The bit or mouthpiece of these holders is round or elliptical and is either formed of a hard material with no give whatever or is made from a soft rubber which merely acts as a cover and is too flexible and in particular these bits or mouthpieces do not fit in the mouth properly. Also, most holders, particularly for cigars, add too much additional length thereto making the handling and smoking of the cigar with the holder aflixed very diificult and cumbersome. All of these above difficulties, of course, tend to overcome the advantages of a holder and, therefore, a great number of persons buying and using holders eventually abandon them.

It is therefore a primary object of my present invention to provide a light flexible holder for cigars which fits the mouth properly and in which the cigar tip is held close or adjacent the lips and firmly in the holder.

Another important object of my present invention is to provide relatively pronounced and fiat upper and lower bearing surfaces or walls to be received between the teeth so that the holder may be easily and readily grasped by the teeth in a natural manner.

A still further object of my present invention is to provide a novel holder which is substantially rectangular in shape for the major portion of its length to conform closely to the shape of most cigars with the main body of the holder tapering towards the mouth piece or bit end and then angling sharply immediately adjacent the bit so that the cigar is received firmly in the holder with the tip immediately adjacent the bit or mouth piece and so that the holder cannot be accidentally pushed into the mouth.

A salient feature of my present invention resides in providing a light flexible cigar holder as above mentioned and in the novel formation of the mouth piece or bit end so that the teeth and lips may be held naturally over the bit end of the holder and in providing a relatively large rear vertical surface in the bit so that the teeth may be moved in a natural manner without losing control of the holder and cigar, thus enabling a person to carry on a normal conversation with the holder still held in the mouth.

Still another object of my present invention is to provide my flexible holder with enough resiliency, particularly adjacent the bit end, so that persons having the habit of biting hard on the holder will not damage the holder but the holder will give with the bite and, further, the walls adjacent the bit end are thickened to prevent 2,956,569 Patented Oct. 18, 1960 the collapse of the holder and to add strength and some rigidity to the same.

With the above and other objects in view which will more readily appear as the nature of the invention is better understood, the same consists in the novel construction and arrangement hereinafter more fully described, illustrated and claimed.

A preferred and practical embodiment of my invention is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of my novel cigar holder looking from the mouth piece or bit end;

Figure 2 is a similar perspective view but looking from the open end of the holder;

Figure 3 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 4 is a longitudinal horizontal sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 3 of the drawing and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Figure 5 is a transverse section taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 3 of the drawing looking in the direction of the arrows, and

Figure 6 is a transverse section taken on the line 66 of Figure 3 of the drawing looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring now to the drawing in detail wherein similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, the letter H generally indicates my improved cigar holder and shows one form of my invention. The holder includes a body 10 preferably formed from a polyethylene plastic material so as to have flexibility and some resiliency but at the same time to be able to hold its shape and to firmly hold a cigar (not shown) therein.

The body 10 includes an open end 11 to receive the cigar (not shown), the tapered central portion 12 and the mouth piece or bit end 13. It should be noted that the open end 11 and cross section of the main body portion 12 is substantially rectangular in shape having a top wall 14, bottom wall 15 and side walls 16. However, these walls do not meet at sharp angles but are joined by slightly rounded wall portions 17 to insure a tight fit with the cigar as shown more clearly in Figures 1, 2 and and 6 of the drawing. All of the walls taper radially inwardly and toward the mouth piece or bit portion 13 and the upper and lower walls 14 and 15 are joined to the bit portion 13 by sharp inwardly directed upper and lower angular walls 18 and 19 respectively, but the side walls 16 and portions 17 flow smoothly into the side walls 20 and 21 of the bit or mouth piece 13. The bit end or mouth piece 13 is substantially as wide as the holder, per se, except for the slight taper of the side walls 16 (note in particular Figure 4 of the drawing). Further, the bit is provided with substantially flat and parallel upper and lower walls 22 and 23 which join the upper and the lower angularly extending walls 18 and 19 respectively. The inner surface 17' of the main body portion 12 formed by the walls 14, 15, 16 and 17 are smooth and uninterrupted so. that the end of the cigar will be received tightly therein and whereby an airtight seal is bad between the cigar and the surface 17. Further, it should be readily apparent that due to the manner in which the flat walls 14, 15 and 16 are joined by the rounded walls 17 that the cigar will be gripped tightly at different points along the axis of the cigar and that the cigar may be pushed into the holder to a point directly adjacent the mouth piece 13.

It should be noted that the spaced upper and lower walls 22 and 23 of the mouth piece 13 form with the side walls 25 and 21 a relatively large rectangularly shaped passageway 24 communicating with the interior 25 of the main body portion 12 of the holder H and this passageway extends substantially the entire width of the holder. At the extreme inner end of the bit or mouth piece 13 is a vertically extending end wall 26 and this wall 26 extends substantially above the upper wall 22 and below the lower wall 23 of the mouth piece to formrather well defined abutments for contacting the teeth as indicated by the numerals 27 and 28. However, this end wall 26 terminates even with the side walls 20 and 21 as clearly shown in Figures 1, 2 and 4 of the drawing. This wall 26 is provided with a relatively small central slot or opening 29 which communicates with the passageway 24 and thus allows smoke to be drawn into the mouth.

Obviously, any size cigar can be accommodated in this holder due to the fact that the body portion is tapered and substantially rectangular in cross section. This rectangular shape provides a much improved holding power over any other known holder, particularly since the cigar itself is substantially rectangular in shape and of course the cigar may be pushed into the holder without the necessity of rotating the cigar in any manner and firmly held therein, thus the leaves or end of the cigar will not be damaged in any manner by the necessity of rotating the cigar in an effort to obtain a tight fit. Furthermore, even if the cigar should bear against the sharp inwardly directed walls '18 and 19, the axial center of the cigar will be readily gripped and held in alignment with the passageway 24 so that there will be no obstruction to the drawing qualities of the cigar. The relatively wide and elongated flat walls 22 and 23 of the mouth portion in combination with the angularly extending walls 18 and 19 provide a form for receiving the lips and mouth when the holder is held between the teeth and the tendency to bite through or otherwise damage the bit or mouth piece is materially reduced because of the tough and flexible material whish will give with the movement of the mouth and teeth. The wall 26 and sharp angularly extending walls 18 and 19 also cooperate as a safety factor to prevent the holder from accidentally being pulled from or pushed into the mouth.

It should be further emphasized that 1 provide a novel mouth piece having relatively pronounced and large end abutments 27 and 28 as well as the generous flat suri-aces formed by the walls 22 and 23 and the angularly extending walls 18 and 19 all of which cooperate to give a form fit which perhaps is more clearly illustrated by the sectional view of Figure 3 of the drawing. As is prevalent in most holders I also provide a radius or flared inner surface 30 at the extreme end termination of the open end 11 so that the cigar and outer leaves thereof will be undamaged as the cigar is pushed into the holder.

From the foregoing, it is believed that the features and advantages of my invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and it will, of course, be understood that changes in the form, proportion, and minor details of construction may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claim.

What I claim as new is:

A compact holder for a cigar and the like formed of flexible, tough, resilient material, comprising a relatively short body portion having an open inner end, flat tapered upper and lower walls extending for the main portion of said 'body and tapering toward said inner end, flat tapered relatively smaller side walls tapering towards said inner end, and shorter slightly rounded wall portionsv joining said upper, lower and side walls to form a substantially inner and outer rectangular shape in cross section with shorter, slightly rounded corner portions, a pair of flat walls diverging sharply toward the longitudinal axis of the holder, the tapering ends of the rounded and upper and lower flat walls merging into said pair of flat walls diverging sharply toward the longitudinal axis of the holder to provide stop shoulders limiting the inward movement of a cigar therein, a mouthpiece integral with said inner end of said body including fiat parallel top and bottom walls joining and merging with said sharply diverging fiat walls, slightly rounded side walls merging with and joining the inner ends of the tapered side walls, and a vertical wall on the extreme inner end of said mouthpiece immediately adiacent to and extending well above said parallel top and bottom walls, said vertical wall having a smoke conducting aperture therein, said parallel topand bottom walls being of a size and configuration to receive the upper and lower teeth with the lips extending beyond and over the sharply diverging walls when the holder is held in the mouth, whereby, when a cigar is received in the holder, it is held in close proximity to the mouth providing a device which adds little to the length of the cigar.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 123,0 Kingston Oct. 15, 1940 1,469,277 Sitter Oct. 2, 1923 1,507,571 Barling Sept. 9, 1924 2,313,648 Lavietes Mar. 9, 1943 FOREIGN PATENTS 371 Sardinia Dec. 31, 1862 248,096 Great Britain Mar. 3, 1926 317,841 France June 7, 1902 557,180 Canada May 6, 1958 

